Tactical Development Review

I thorughly enjoyed my placement working for Audi and would highly reccommend it to any ambitious student who wants to work and understand a business. The placement has given me the platform to explore unlimited opportunities such as working with the factory, the network, agencies and first line management for example. The benefits have been above and beyond what I would have expected and I thus feel priviledged to have completed my year working for VWG.

I feel as though I am a valued member of my team, of the brand I work for and of Volkswagen Group UK. My team believe in the work I produce and make me feel like I am a permenant employee, who has as much right as anyone else in the business to be there. As a result, throughout the year I have been keen to produce only quality work to encourage my team to further believe in my ability.

Throughout the 12 months I have been supported by my line manager and team members in all aspects of the job and life outside work. I have been supported above and beyond what I expected, and will be thoroughly disheartened to leave my team. I feel that my team have a genuine interest in my development and have become more like friends during the 12 month placement. As well as my team I managed to build relationships with people outside my department who have mentored me and also took it upon themselves to help with my personal development.

On a daily basis I would have certain jobs, however a lot of the working day would be spent doing ad hoc tasks for members of my team and management.

The responsibility I was given grew exponentially throughout the 12 months as a result of the management team learning to trust my work and therefore ask me rather than my line manager or another of my team for the work. During the last 6 months of my placement I would often be approached by the director of Audi and asked to produce work that would go to the board members of Audi AG, for example.

The skills I have learnt during placement will be directly transferable to any business I work for in the future, as my placement has provided me with commercial awareness from a key department in any business, planning. I have a much broader understanding of what a business is and how they function, and have gained invaluable experience in working for other departments such as sales, planning and marketing.

The atmosphere in the office is informal and relaxed, and makes a working day a pleasurable day. The open plan style of the office means that the hierarchy is invisible and allows exposure to first line management and closer inter-team relationships.

The placement was extremely well organised and began with a 30, 60 and 90 day checklist in which you and your manager would ensure you had ticked off certain things such as meeting key stakeholders and visiting appropriate places such as the network.

There were many training courses for undergrads to take advantage of, and as an undergrad was treat no differently to permenant employees when being selected for training courses. There was an excel and powerpoint course we was enrolled into towards the beginning of our placement which was crucial in being able to perform our roles to the highest standard possible.

I am very keen to return to the business on the graduate scheme, as I am eager to explore different brands and departments across the business. If unsuccessful on the graduate scheme I would still aim to return in a job role such as product analyst.

Because there was 30+ of us it has meant that the social scene has been great, with weekly night outs. A lot of friendships have been made, which has been crucial for those of us that moved to MK alone. It has been like another year at uni in terms of the social side!

The cost of living was not much different from where I lived and socialising was in line with the pay.

The nightlife is good, with enough bars and nightclubs to keep you going for a year.

There was a football team and netball team people could get involved in, There are often events happening outside of the workplace with team members.